From the election of Jimmy Carter to the wide defection of Democrats inthe South to the Republican ticket in the Reagan/Bush years, Southern Democratshave played a crucial role in recent American national politics. With the 1992election of President Clinton, they once again occupy a place at the center ofthe American political stage. A timely examination of this important phenomenonin American politics, Southern Democrats traces the history of this influentialregional faction and guages the extent and nature of Southern Democraticinfluence in congressional and presidential politics today.Nicol Rae argues that the Southern Democrats remain a distinctive factiondespite the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which initiated the end ofthe social and economic system that had previously bound them together. The onlysurviving political faction based on regional--rather thanideological--concerns, they have nevertheless evolved from being a deviantelement within the party to coming closer to the national Democratic norm whichis most apparent in civil rights issues.Drawing on interviews with many southern politicians and memoirs and accountsof past campaigns, Rae deals with the success of Southern Democrat andDemocratic Leadership Council leader Bill Clinton in winning the 1992 Democraticpresidential nomination, and reveals the changing role of Southern Democrats ininternal party politics and national elections. He concludes with an overallassessment of the present and future state of this important southern wing ofthe Democratic party.

Nicol C. Rae is Associate Professor of Political Science at Florida International University.